Hello,

Just thought I'd drop a quick note to update you on what's new at Buckshot Outfitting.  The biggest news is that I'm in the process of buying out the outfitter that borders me to the east.  We've negotiated the terms and all of the paperwork is at the licensing board in Boise now.  There's still a fair bit of red tape to wade through but the sale should be complete within a couple of months.  It's really a nice chunk of country that will complement my current territory well.  It's basically all of the area between my existing territory in Unit 1 and the Montana border.  The current outfitter is permitted only for lion so for this year that's the only benefit we'll see from it, but that alone will be a fantastic expansion.  He has been taking 4-6 lions off the area every year for quite some time.  I don't intend to take that many lions off of it but I am looking forward to being able to find more cats in the coming winters and slightly increasing my harvest.

As soon as the sale is final I will initiate the process with the licensing board, the Forest Service and the Fish and Game to have deer, elk, moose and bear hunting added to the permits so that I can conduct those activities on the additional territory as well.  I don't expect that to be a very speedy process but hope to have it completed for the fall 2006 season.  I know it will offer good deer, moose and bear hunting but I'm not sure about the elk yet.  I will spend some time scouting over the next year and decide whether or not I feel I could offer some quality elk hunts there.  Rumor has it there is some good elk hunting there but I obviously need to see it for myself before I get too carried away.

I believe I've already updated you on how well the Montana lion hunts went in December so I'll pick up from there.  We've had by far the mildest, most snowless winter I've ever seen.  It made conditions very difficult for cat hunting.  Fortunately I booked only 2 lion hunters in Idaho for this year and they were both able to connect with good cats, one of which was a really good tom.  We also picked up a few bobcats.  I haven't seen the harvest numbers for the lion season yet this year but I expect them to be way down.  I think a lot of locals didn't even bother to hunt with the poor conditions we had.  These factors, plus the additional territory, should translate into a good Idaho lion season next winter.  I still have good dates available for those hunts.  There are also still lion hunts I guide in Montana available.  My dad lives and hunts in the Swan Valley of Montana where we guide the first week of December and he has been finding lots of lions all winter long despite the poor conditions.

For those of you interested in Moose, the application period, 4/1-4/30, is coming up soon.  If you've already contacted me about your interest in applying for moose I'll be in touch in April to give you the details on how to apply and which units are available.  If you are interested and haven't talked to me about it yet, just let me know and I'll make a note to contact you when it's time to apply.

Spring bear season is just around the corner and I still have some great dates available for either baited or spot and stalk hunts.  Due to a cancellation I've got a week available with no one booked so if you have a group of 2-4 you could be the only hunters in camp that week.  I expect to have another good bear season.

Another mild winter should have done good things for our deer herd and I have dates available for both early archery season and rifle rut hunts.  Every year it seems more and bigger bucks come out of the areas we're hunting in Bonner and Boundary counties.

Thanks for bearing with me and if you have any questions don't hesitate to drop me a line.  If you'd rather not receive this newsletter or if I've somehow got your address duplicated so that you're receiving the same newsletter more than once just let me know and I'll take care of it.

Sincerely,

Clint Gray
Buckshot Outfitting
208-267-3885
www.buckshotoutfitting.com